Officer Jason Trimborn said his job as a school resource officer is to “give them the sense of safety, stability, security that comes with having an officer there to be the first line of defense to anything bad that can happen at the school.”

The safety committee’s plan involves hiring 16 police officers to help patrol at elementary school campuses. There are already police officers in place at each of the district’s middle and high school campuses.

Many Maine campuses are adding school resource officers in addition to their other security measures. According to data collected by University of Southern Maine research analyst Danielle Layton, Maine had at least 82 school resource officers as of this fall.

Extra public safety officers have been assigned to patrol on campus, and Muhlenberg Township police have supplied additional patrol cars and officers to patrol during the evening, night and early morning.